The Best Air Fryers of 2022

Unlike most of these appliances, the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer isn’t shaped like a huge egg or space capsule. Rather it’s a big stainless-steel cube that looks like a truncated toaster oven. While its boxy shape fits more neatly on a countertop, it still takes up a bit of countertop real estate (in spite of its name).

The Cuisinart is relatively uncomplicated. It doesn’t have preset programs for specific foods or additional functions like “keep warm” or “dehydrate”. You simply turn dials to set the temperature and the cooking time, with no need to preheat. The straightforward manual includes recipes to get you started.

Its wide air frying basket allows food to spread out for more even, crispy results with relatively quick cooking times. Using the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer, homemade fries looked and tasted like they had been bobbing in a deep fryer vat of oil.

Neither the stainless-steel basket nor the drip pan is dishwasher safe. If you're making drippy battered items like tempura shrimp or onion rings, it’s not always easy to clean. However, if you’re looking for an appliance that air fries well without an exorbitant price, this Cuisinart is well worth your consideration.

Food comes out browned and crispy from the Dash Deluxe 6-Quart Air Fryer as long as you don’t overload it. Although it’s a 6-quart model, the basket's small diameter holds less food in one layer than the larger models I tested.

While the Dash doesn’t include digital controls, it's still very simple to operate. Simply turn the temperature and time dials in an intuitive, two-step process. If you’re tired of boring-looking appliances, the Dash comes in glossy red or aqua as well as white and black.

Even though you have to hand wash the baskets, they're nonstick and easy to get clean.

The Ninja performed so well, you could have convinced me that both the breaded and battered chicken was fried in a cast iron skillet.

French fries came close to the real thing. However, they didn’t have quite the crunch that you get from a deep fryer or the Philips, which can even crisp up a whole bag of frozen fries at once. However, the Ninja is about a quarter of the price of the Philips and is nowhere near as big or heavy.

On the Ninja, you’ll find digital temperature controls and settings for reheating, roasting, and dehydrating. More options make for more complicated controls, but you’ll soon master the necessary steps. The nonstick basket can be washed in the dishwasher, too. It also includes a stainless-steel rack for multilevel cooking.

I admit I had a healthy dose of skepticism towards the Ninja Foodi, an appliance that's also a pressure cooker and slow cooker.

Incredibly, all its functions work well. In fact, it cooked the crunchiest, most well-browned results in our cook-off, plus it pressure-cooks as well as any appliance I’ve ever tested.

If you like, you can even combine the functions, pressure cooking a chicken and then air-frying it to brown and crisp the skin. Additional programs let you broil, dehydrate, steam, slow cook, and sauté, making the Foodi the most versatile multicooker on the market. One thing of note: During air frying mode, it’s noisier than most.

As you would expect with so many options, it takes a little practice to get a hang of programming the digital control panel. However, the screen is well-designed with large, easy-to-read lettering.

The Foodi is space-saving compared to owning both an air fryer and a multi-cooker. But it’s still a large, heavy appliance that's not easy to store.

Considering the multi-functionality of this machine, I wish its cookbook was better organized and had recipes and charts for all of the cooking settings. The basket and the pot are nonstick and dishwasher safe, but the lids require TLC.

This little guy is just so darn cute you can’t help loving it. The Dash Compact does a decent job of “frying” as long as you confine it to about a half-pound of food at a time. No preheating is required, but for best results, the food should be tossed and turned several times during cooking.

With its dial temperature controls, you can’t set the Dash precisely. For the most part, the manual is helpful and even includes a few recipes, but some of the temperatures specified in the charts and recipes are different from the ones printed on the machine. The dial also doesn't have precise temperature markings.

The nonstick basket is small enough to go in the dishwasher without hogging too much space. Like the bigger model, the Dash Compact has a glossy exterior in red, aqua, white, or black.

You pay top dollar for the handsome brushed stainless-steel Breville Smart Oven Air. But you also get a state-of-the-art toaster oven along with your air fryer. It consistently turned out crispy food and chicken nuggets that tasted like they were deep-fried. The digital temperature controls are intuitive to program and include automatic preheat. The Breville also has a bright oven light.

It’s large even by toaster oven standards, and can truly replace your oven. You don’t even need special toaster oven-sized cookware. Breville even claims it can accommodate a 14-pound turkey.

I do have one major quibble with this product. The manual doesn’t contain any instructions on how to cook various foods.

This may not be a problem for baking or roasting. But if you’re new to air frying, you’re on your own getting started. Also, all of the parts require hand washing.

The GoWise 8-in-1 performs well and has some nice advantages. In addition to its large capacity, the digital controls have eight preprogrammed settings and an alarm that can remind you to toss food during cooking.

It doesn’t require preheating and the nonstick basket is dishwasher safe. The GoWise also includes a cookbook with lots of recipe ideas. In addition to black and white, this model comes in red and purple, too.